Posts Tagged ‘poker books’

From time to time it’s wise, sometimes even necessary, to revisit some of our past blogs because they hold up today as much as they did when we first published them. That is the case with this poker lesson offered by Daniel Negreanu.

As Daniel says right at the start of this video; “everybody always wants to know ‘how do you read your opponents?’ ” I have been playing for a long time and I still find it very difficult, but then again, I’m no Negreanu. It always seems to me that my opponents mix it up so much that they are exceedingly tough to read. Of course, that’s because I usually play some pretty tough hardliners who know how to give off false tells.

Daniel’s advice, nevertheless, is extremely good and you should play this video over and over again until you learn how to read every one of the signs he talks about. Then, when you need even more knowledge, pick up all the poker books and dvds you can find. Hopefully, by the next time you sit down at a poker table you’ll be ready to read your opponents.

It looked as though Joe McKeehen was never going to be stopped at the 46th Annual World Series of Poker Main Event, and indeed he wasn’t.

McKeehen dominated the final table from the very start, he sat down with a huge chip lead on day one, and never let go. His attitude from the beginning was that he would win it all and he did just that, the 24-year-old poker pro dominated all the way and took home $7.68 million, along with his first WSOP gold bracelet.

Josh Beckley finished as runner up and takes home a more than substantial pay day of $4,470,896 for a young 24-year-old who has been playing professionally for less than one year. Neil Blumenfield, although at a young 61-year-old, he was considerably older than his last remaining opponents, he managed to hang on to take third place for a payout of $3,398,298. Our favorite Max Steinberg walked away with a very healthy $2,615,361 pay-out in fourth place.

I don’t know about any of you guys but this makes me wanna practice, practice, practice, and if we all do just that, plus study any poker DVDs and poker books that are available, maybe next year some of us will venture a little deeper into our WSOP dreams. Hope to see ya’ll there.

I remember my English teacher telling us how to get over our writer’s block by simply penning down three best words that describe the subject matter. A three-word-phrase—like Red-White-Blue describing USA, or Ass-Ass-Ass describing Megan Fox.

What about starting out in Poker? Id’ say Know-Talk-Do. Gambling for a living is a hard way to make easy money. If you’re planning on making a few extra bucks on the side, and playing more than just your friendly drunk game, then Know-Talk-Do.

Try to know all you can. Read a lot of poker books, but make sure they’re current. My picks to start out are “Let There Be Range” by Tri Nguyen and Cole South, “Poker Math That Matters” by Owen Gaines, “Caro’s Book Of Poker Tells” by Mike Caro, and “Raiser’s Edge” by Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier.

Talk isn’t just about talking to people who know more than you do. You’d certainly do that, but you also need to stay current and in tune with new and emerging poker terms to be able to talk the talk and network with players on and off sessions or tournaments, to get them to divulge as much information as possible.

Finally, you do all it takes to implement what you know, and what you’ve been talking about. As David Slanksky, a prolific author on gambling and a poker genius says, “If there’s something I know about the game that the other person doesn’t, and if he’s not willing to learn or can’t understand, then I take his money”.

It doesn’t matter what game or sport you play or bet on, the fear of losing can sometimes be so powerful that you’ll simply not take the chance. That especially holds true when playing any kind of card game for real money. There are lots of players who are so scared of losing that even when they are playing free rolls or are playing for monopoly money, their fear pushes them into making huge mistakes. And God forbid if they are actually playing for real money; the fear of losing paralyzes them every time. All of this is fear that can and must be overcome if you want to be known as a winner.

When playing in poker tournaments the majority never make the money and the biggest reason for that is fear of losing. So how do you overcome that fear? First thing you have to realize is that even the most professional, best players in the world actually lose more than 50 to 60% of the time when they are playing in cash games . . . and when they are playing tournaments they will mostly finish out of the money. Losing the majority of the games you enter in poker is absolutely common on a regular basis. Even when you are a winner in the long term remember that losing will always be part of the game. You must accept it and learn how to overcome your fear and frustration and hang in there for when you get a huge run.

There are many “How To” poker books and DVDs by huge winners like Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and Doyle Brunson that you should pick up and study. Learn from the pros how to beat the fear of losing. Below are a few pointers that should help you quash your fear somewhat:

Don’t be scared to protect your hand, especially when you have a top pair with a big kicker. If you are scared and don’t bet you could easily be outdrawn.

Don’t play too tight pre-flop. If you are playing scared you are likely to not enter hands where you may outdraw your opponents.

Don’t be scared to bluff. If you never bluff you’ll become predictable and your opponents will be able to read you and they will take advantage and push you out.

If you are showing that you’re scared to lose, your opponents will easily pick up on that and push you out with big bets, even when you are holding a strong hand and they have nothing. It’s really easy to bluff a player who’s scared to lose.

Learn how to value bet. If you don’t do it enough you will always end up not capitalizing on your power hands. If you think you have the best hand on the river, you should always bet an amount that will give you the most value when it’s called. Your bet should not scare everyone away, but instead give them pot odds that they can live with.